Headlines

It’s nothing but a power play

What’s going on here? Having taken Boehner’s sword, and then his shirt, Obama sent Geithner to demand Boehner’s trousers. Perhaps this is what Obama means by a balanced approach.

He pretends that Boehner’s offer to raise revenue by eliminating deductions rather than by raising rates is fiscally impossible.

But on July 22, 2011, Obama had said that “$1.2 trillion in additional revenues . . . could be accomplished without hiking tax rates, but could simply be accomplished by eliminating loopholes, eliminating some deductions and engaging in a tax reform process.” Which is exactly what the Republicans are offering today.

You’ve heard of situational ethics. This is situational mathematics. …

Such nonsense abounds because Obama’s objective in these negotiations is not economic but political: not to solve the debt crisis but to fracture the Republican majority in the House. Get Boehner to cave, pass the tax hike with Democratic votes provided by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and let the Republican civil war begin.

Blowback

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A Congressman/woman collects a salary while in office and receives no
pay when they’re out of office.

2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.

All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the
Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into
the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the
American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all
Americans do.

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise.

Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people. (Maxine, Nancy, Charley et all)

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void
effective 12/31/12. The American people did not make this
contract with Congressmen/women.

Make it financially detrimental to stay in Congress more than a couple of terms.

I am sick to death of the defense that “Obama took the other side in 2011″. That is sheer politicking, and does not speak to what is TRUE.

The Dems and Obama have gotten away for MONTHS with the pants-on-fire LIE that “the math doesn’t work”. If deductions are lessened or removed, then the taxable income goes up, and so does the tax revenue.

Why can we not simply explain this in simple terms that reasonable people can understand? Demonstrate the simple math.

That said, we are still going to have to give in on the matter of a token tax increase on the “rich”. It’s political suicide to do otherwise. But let’s get what we can in exchange for it.

My larger point is that if we don’t actually organize and fight we get destroyed.

How are we fighting together right now against the media?
Fighting as individuals is not as strong as fighting together.

GardenGnome on December 7, 2012 at 9:29 AM

It will not happen. The Republican/GOPe has every incentive to fail. They are by and large progressive. It is what happens to bureaucracies, they become taken over by a certain type of people. Their end goals are the same as the Democrats. Destroy conservatism, collect power, rule instead of govern.

What should Republicans do? Stop giving stuff away. If Obama remains intransigent, let him be the one to take us over the cliff. And then let the new House, which is sworn in weeks before the president, immediately introduce and pass a full across-the-board restoration of the George W. Bush tax cuts.

This is actually the best idea I’ve seen from conservative punditry on how to handle this situation. If Republicans let the Bush tax cuts expire, the media will hammer the Republican House them for it and blame them, the Republican House, and the American people will see that and nod their heads in agreement that the Republican House wanted this to happen. Do note that it was the Republican House that did this, and not glorious leader Obama.

But it’s a trap, and the media will play right into it because they can’t think more than one move ahead.

The new House (still held by those intransigent Republicans, mind you) will convene, and reauthorize the Bush tax cuts in full (ummm….Republican House?) and then DARE Democrats to vote against it (wait, the House is full of Democrats, I’m pretty sure). If Republicans look like they want to newly cut taxes, and SOMEBODY let the old ones expire, it must’ve been the party that isn’t supporting the tax cuts, THE DEMOCRATS.

Thus, blame shifts from R to D for the fiscal cliff in retrospect, and the media will be partially responsible for solidifying that notion among the electorate.

Krauthammer gives multiple reasons why Obama has proven himself to not care about taxes or the economy. The Republicans should seize on every one of those and mock Obama mercilessly for his hypocrisy. The Republicans will be blamed by the media and the left, but there’s no reason why they should have to take all the blame. They should persistenly remind everyone that:

– Obama’s budgets have been rejected by both houses of Congress every time, even when both houses of Congress were controlled by Obama’s own party
– The Senate has been under Democratic control during Obama’s entire first term, and has yet to pass a budget … even once.
– Obama called the Simpson-Bowles commission together to find ways to control the deficit, then completely ignored their results
– Obama is rejecting tax reform to eliminate deductions that he himself proposed a year ago
– Obama’s claim to raise taxes on the wealthy would accomplish almost nothing even if it actually worked. And it won’t work, because the tax hikes will themselves depresss future earnings
– Obama has shown himself completely unwilling to cut a penny from the budget

There’s a lot more that can be said about Obama’s unserious approach to the budget. And these things should be said repeatedly, until the media is getting furious every time they get
brought up.

Not only that, but the media’s attempts to cover for Obama should be held up to repeated ridicule.